I'm quite hard-pressed to describe, in as few words as possible, what ABC's upcoming drama The River is.

You can say it's a sci-fi series, since it revolves around a well-loved wildlife explorer who searches for magic deep in the Amazon. But you can also say it's a horror series, judging from all the sound effects in the trailer -- and also the fact that it looks a bit like Paranormal Activity.

That's no coincidence: The River season 1 is co-created by Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli, and is co-executive produced by Steven Spielberg. The series revolves around the search for wildlife expert Emmet Cole (Star Trek's Bruce Greenwood), who went to the Amazon and disappeared without a trace.

Six months later, his family -- wife Tess (24's Leslie Hope) and son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) -- have begun the process of moving on, when his emergency beacon suddenly goes off. And now they're off -- alongside Emmet's former producer Clark (Paul Blackthorne), who volunteers to shoot the whole thing as a documentary -- to look for Emmet. They end up in the deepest parts of the Amazon, so mysterious it's not on any published map.

There, they face mysterious forces and even mysterious creatures -- heck, The River season 1 even promises a Smoke Monster-like thing. Shades of Lost? The fact that they're shooting this in Hawaii could help.

The River also stars Paulina Gaitan, Eloise Mumford, Shaun Parkes, Thomas Kretschmann and Daniel Zacapa. The series premieres February 7 at 9pm on ABC.